The Virginia Tech Signature Engineering Building Instrumentation Program: Creating a Real-World Living Laboratory for Education, Research, and Outreach
The new 160,000 sq ft Goodwin Hall (GH) is on the Virginia Tech campus. GH consists of 5 floors in an “L” shape design, as shown in Figure 1. The VT College of Engineering has recognized and seized a unique opportunity to outfit the building with over 200 accelerometers and other sensors (temperature, wind, etc) to study the dynamic response of the building in real-time with associated applications for the development of smart infrastructure. This test bed enables the study of myriad topics associated with building design and operation from infancy through the useful life of the structure. Topics include structural health monitoring, building occupancy patterns for improving sustainable development and emergency evacuation approaches as well as studies on floor vibrations on human health, along with many other topics showcased throughout the VT-SIL website.
One of the greatest impacts this project will have is with the education of future engineers. The GH instrumentation program will be utilized extensively in undergraduate and graduate engineering courses at VT – effectively establishing a real-world living laboratory for students. Through the incorporation of this program into several undergraduate courses already identified, several hundreds of students every year will be exposed to the techniques, equipment, and methodologies of real-world engineering practices. These students will go on to their future employers with knowledge and experience gained through their interaction with this building and instrumentation project.
Over the past few decades the instrumentation of structures has been a growing sub-field of mechanical and civil engineering. The use of instrumentation in structures was initially motivated by the need for a method for measuring damage detection in civil structures (buildings and bridges) after large seismic events. Since its beginnings, structural health monitoring (SHM) has played an increasingly vital role in maintaining aging infrastructures, as well as allowing designers to verify dynamic models of structures. Virginia Tech will use the highly-instrumented GH for undergraduate and graduate education in topics on design, modeling, and the monitoring of building behavior under different conditions such as during seasonal changes and during weather and seismic events. The instrumentation program in the GH will also include demonstrations and monitors for all visitors to the building, with a special focus on K-12 outreach. As proof of VT SIL's commitment to education and outreach, this last endeavor is currently being addressed and carried out by a group of VT mechanical engineering senior design students.
One of the greatest impacts this project will have is with the education of future engineers. The GH instrumentation program will be utilized extensively in undergraduate and graduate engineering courses at VT – effectively establishing a real-world living laboratory for students. Through the incorporation of this program into several undergraduate courses already identified, several hundreds of students every year will be exposed to the techniques, equipment, and methodologies of real-world engineering practices. These students will go on to their future employers with knowledge and experience gained through their interaction with this building and instrumentation project.
Over the past few decades the instrumentation of structures has been a growing sub-field of mechanical and civil engineering. The use of instrumentation in structures was initially motivated by the need for a method for measuring damage detection in civil structures (buildings and bridges) after large seismic events. Since its beginnings, structural health monitoring (SHM) has played an increasingly vital role in maintaining aging infrastructures, as well as allowing designers to verify dynamic models of structures. Virginia Tech will use the highly-instrumented GH for undergraduate and graduate education in topics on design, modeling, and the monitoring of building behavior under different conditions such as during seasonal changes and during weather and seismic events. The instrumentation program in the GH will also include demonstrations and monitors for all visitors to the building, with a special focus on K-12 outreach. As proof of VT SIL's commitment to education and outreach, this last endeavor is currently being addressed and carried out by a group of VT mechanical engineering senior design students.
One of the important aspects of this instrumentation program, that makes it unique, is that most of the instrumentation is being mounted in the building during the construction phase. Often instrumentation systems are installed several years after the construction of a structure has been completed. However, with the Goodwin Hall program, the building will be fully instrumented for primary monitoring before the completion of construction. This project aims to provide the foundation for a one-of-a-kind, real-world research tool that allows not only fundamental research into the fields of SHM, building dynamics, digital signal processing, and sensor network design, but also provides data that can be brought into the classroom by linking real-world problems with education. In order to accomplish and sustain these goals, the program includes the design and implementation of a modular and expandable instrumentation system, which will provide continual and synchronized acquisition, streaming, post processing of data from hundreds of sensors, and easy expansion and/or modification of hardware and software as technology advances. One of the data acquisition modules and a sensor mount with accelerometers is shown in Figure 2.
A direct result of early instrumentation will be the refinement of data-driven models that allow accurate damage identification in a SHM system, and identification of critical sensor locations to aid in determining optimized SHM systems. Furthermore, by working hand in hand with the construction company and governmental agencies, new standard practices are being developed, and these practices will have a lasting impact on the development and implementation of building instrumentation in the years to come.
In this program, accelerometers are being placed on structural steel on all floors. As mentioned earlier, by instrumenting a building of this size and magnitude, this system will become a focal point for research in a variety of fields, including:
In this program, accelerometers are being placed on structural steel on all floors. As mentioned earlier, by instrumenting a building of this size and magnitude, this system will become a focal point for research in a variety of fields, including:
- Structural Health Monitoring
- Occupancy and Activity Monitoring
- Building Dynamics
- Digital Signal Processing
- Sensor network Design
- Big Data Analysis
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These diverse research possibilities have already attracted the participation of numerous companies, who have already made contributions to the effort, and faculty from multiple departments, within and outside of engineering disciplines. Some of the multiple disciplines represented by the VT-SIL members include:
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The growing group is strongly multidisciplinary (as depicted in Figure 4) and well equipped in expertise and resources to carry out research in smart infrastructure technology. The expertise and disciplines brought by each member is essential to form a cohesive research group capable of a holistic and synergistic approach to the data exploration effort for the GH instrumentation project and to move this data to an easily interpretable framework. Figure 5 briefly presents the needed expertise to develop crucial applications for smart infrastructure.
At the heart of this project will be a data acquisition system and server (Deep Thought) that continually acquires and processes the data from a variety of sensors throughout the building. An example floor plan with sensor locations is shown in Figure 3.
At the heart of this project will be a data acquisition system and server (Deep Thought) that continually acquires and processes the data from a variety of sensors throughout the building. An example floor plan with sensor locations is shown in Figure 3.
In order to fully instrument this size of a building, and to give researchers additional flexibility in designing and completing projects, an initial 136 static sensor locations have been identified with the capability to hard-mount 5x136 sensors as shown in Figure 6. The quantity of sensor locations makes this one of the largest building instrumentation projects undertaken to date. Given the expansive nature of this project, a distributed data acquisition system that offers compatibility with multiple sensor types has been chosen. This system will offer the ability to expand to meet the needs of future research interests. Additionally, the data, and the system, will be remotely accessible through a dedicated website, which will allow researchers worldwide to access this unique and powerful research tool.
Sponsors
It is clear that the successful implementation and continuation of this program can only be accomplished by the support provided by our sponsors. With that in mind we are thankful for those who have already shown interest and are providing their services, equipment and donations to help in this endeavor.
Where to find us
Although our work takes place in Goodwin Hall our offices are located in 171 Durham Hall at:
1145 Perry St.
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA 24061
By Auto:
Blacksburg is located on U.S. Route 460, just off U.S. Interstate 81 (exit 118), 40 miles west of Roanoke and approximately 50 miles east of the south exit of the West Virginia Turnpike (I-77).
From the 460 bypass, take the Price's Fork Road exit toward downtown. From Price's Fork Road turn right onto Stanger Street. The Virginia Tech Smart Infrastructure Laboratory is on the first floor of Durham Hall at the corner of Stanger Street and Perry St on the Virginia Tech campus.
To park on campus you will need a visitor pass. We suggest you visit Virginia Tech's Parking and Transportation services website to know more about this (LINK). Parking and Transportation’s contact information is:
1145 Perry St.
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA 24061
By Auto:
Blacksburg is located on U.S. Route 460, just off U.S. Interstate 81 (exit 118), 40 miles west of Roanoke and approximately 50 miles east of the south exit of the West Virginia Turnpike (I-77).
From the 460 bypass, take the Price's Fork Road exit toward downtown. From Price's Fork Road turn right onto Stanger Street. The Virginia Tech Smart Infrastructure Laboratory is on the first floor of Durham Hall at the corner of Stanger Street and Perry St on the Virginia Tech campus.
To park on campus you will need a visitor pass. We suggest you visit Virginia Tech's Parking and Transportation services website to know more about this (LINK). Parking and Transportation’s contact information is:
455 Research Center Dr. (0540)
Blacksburg, VA 24061-0540 |
Phone: 540-231-3200
Fax: 540-231-3027 Email: [email protected] Office Hours: Monday - Friday, 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. |